Fascinating Interview with Remote Freelancer Bernie J. Mitchell

Bernie J. Mitchell lets us take a sneak peek at his life as a remote freelancer in a co-working space.

Tell us about what you do.

The short list is podcasting, blogging, email marketing, community building, communications, Trello courses, non-profit collaboration, and the sharing economy. I’ll explain the “Sharing Economy” - classic examples are Airbnb and Zipcar. So instead of owning something, you are in a network where you can get access to it. I actually work in a co-working space, which is great because we can support each other in the shared space. Instead of cash we swap time, and teach each other skills. So I might show someone how to work with Trello and they might show me a new skill.

You use Nimble as a CRM - why did you choose Nimble?

Nimble is easier to use than other CRMs, and it connects to Google Apps. Back when I chose Nimble, in 2011, it was one of the few CRMs that connected everything social at the time. It also connected contacts and helped me get a grip on my network. I mean, I love connecting with people and connecting people, and Nimble allowed me to build relationships with those people in the place most useful to them. There’s no point emailing someone who likes to communicate in twitter, you have to be where they are most comfortable.

PieSync Helps Bernie J. Mitchell to be a Digital Nomad.

How has PieSync helped your business?

I use PieSync, Evercontact and Google Contacts with Nimble. What I find is they all sync contacts with each other. So when I swap phones every contact shows up and everything is up to date and correct. I haven’t put in any data or phone numbers in years. Everything gets scraped and updated. No data entry. My point of view is, if I know a lot about 500 people and can maintain some kind of contact with them that’s ample. I’m not spending time updating stuff, I spend my time responding to them and follow them up in a personal way, PieSync really helps do that.

What are your future plans?

I’m working on getting everything online and automating as much as possible, it took me about 6 months to understand how to automate everything in the cloud. I researched apps, people used to take the piss because I was always talking about a new app or plug-in. I love trying out new apps, especially anything that will connect Google Apps, Trello and Android. I’ve spent two years trying out new products, and I’ve finally settled on a few. Like Rainmaker, which is a wp-based platform for podcast, LMS, email and blog tool, I use it for automations like sending out my weekly emails.The massive strength of all this automation is I can be location independent, and I can keep up with people. I can get in contact with them using my CRM and all the contacts are up to date, this means more work and I’m not wasting my time. It really helps speed up the relationship building. This all means I spend more time reading, writing and hanging out with my family and less time updating stuff.